SARATOGA SPRINGS -- With this week's temperatures barely staying in the teens during the daylight hours and dipping below freezing at night, people without a home are figuring out how to keep themselves warm.

Ginny Stoliker, a case manager at Shelters of Saratoga, an emergency shelter that provides a place to stay, advocacy and referral services for the homeless and those at risk of homelessness, says both shelters on Walworth Street -- a total of 32 beds -- are almost full. There are only a couple of beds left in the men's unit, and she doesn't expect them to stay open for long. But even when there are no open beds, if someone shows up on the shelter's doorstep when it's bitter cold outside, Stoliker says they will bring them inside.

"We would never put someone back out on the street," Stoliker said during a telephone interview. "I would be shocked if there was anybody out in this weather; even a sleeping bag won't protect you."

The shelter has adjusted its schedule to fit the brutal temperature outside. During a normal weekday, the homeless staying there must leave the house -- to do things like job hunt and attend programs -- until

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4 p.m., when they are allowed back into the shelter. Stoliker said that today, the people who live at the shelter will be allowed to stay indoors for the day. According to Accuweather, the high temperature is forecasted to be 14 degrees and the low 10 degrees below zero.

Bo Goliber, the coordinator of development and volunteers at Franklin Community Center, a nonprofit human service agency, said the center ran out of adult-sized hats and gloves, but there are a few children's items left. There are still winter items in the community center's Free Store, which is open Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

"A woman came in today looking for long johns for her child," Goliber said. "It was truly heartbreaking."

Stoliker said that during the winter months, homeless people usually attend programs during the day, go to the soup kitchen on Circular Street for lunch and couch surf with friends or hang out in the library for warmth.

The stairwell in the new Woodlawn Avenue parking garage had become a popular place for the homeless to congregate because it is heated. But the Public Works Department recently turned off the heat because it was attracting too many people.

"We did it to discourage them from going in there," Public Works Commissioner Skip Scirocco said. "It's unfortunate they don't have a place to go, and it wouldn't surprise me if they were in there now."

Lt. John Catone said the Saratoga Springs Police Department has made an effort, motivated by the frigid weather, to get people living on the streets to a warm place.

"Not everybody will go," Lt. Catone said. "We have made an extra attempt to look for any of the homeless people we're familiar with in the spots where they normally stay and get them to move on to a warm location."

Catone said parking garages are always popular with people looking to get out of the wind and hunker down somewhere. The issue with people congregating in the stairwell of the Walworth garage was compounded by the fact that some were moving personal belongings into the stairwells.

Wednesday afternoon, the stairwells were void of people. Even though the heat had been shut off, it was significantly warmer inside the stairwells than it was outside.